<p>Peaceful, if your D is not looking for a pre-professional “feel”, then you may have to help her get out of the box of thinking that she needs to major in communications in order to “DO” communications once she graduates. She does not need a degree in journalism to be a journalist, she does not need a degree in mass media or digital communications or any of those things to be a practitioner. She does need to learn to write with clarity, be analytical in her thinking and reading, and read voraciously, i.e. major in almost anything.</p>
<p>I think BU will have many of the issues Emory does (but it is in Boston) in terms of intellectualism. I think your comments about Tufts and Brandeis are out-dated; they both deserve another look from her although I don’t know how generous they are about transfer admissions.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise making a decision on one foot. It sounds like you and your daughter need to do some more homework. </p>
<p>So, would a gap year work? I think it would be preferable to a semester in a school she doesn’t like.</p>
<p>I agree with blossom. Tufts has become an excellent school. I know lots of folks there. I know fewer at Brandeis and the school will have some difficult financial issues, but my general impression is that it is far from rigid, even in the professional parts like the Heller School. Also, what about schools like Wesleyan that have have lots of latitude for creativity?</p>
<p>bernie12, thanks for the info. I do know a number of business schools, but not much about Emory. It sounds like a good school that is suffering transformational pains as it seeks to rise up the prestige ladder.</p>
<p>I can understand a girl who wants a co-ed experience crossing off Wellesley, but why is she opposed to Tufts? Some of her issues with Emory (larger classes, advising, etc.) are going to follow her to BU (not intended as a slam against BU, it’s just that BU has a student enrollment if 18,714; Emory = 7,231). It seems like of all of the Boston area schools, Tufts might be the best fit (highly academic, smaller = 5,224, more individualized attention, etc.).</p>
<p>** Cross-posted with Blossom and Shawbridge **</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your thoughts and for all of the great information. I didn’t realize that BU’s enrollment was so large. Is that for undergrad only?</p>
<p>Tufts does not accept transfers for January and my daughter would need to complete her Sophomore year at Emory. She is really not that interested in taking a year off. After that, she would like to study in Spain and so transferring as a rising Junior might be awkward. Also, it is my understanding that most Tufts students move off campus Junior and/or Senior year and I think that could make for a pretty awkward social scene for a transfer. Ideally, she would have applied out for this September to Tufts. </p>
<p>I think that perhaps as Blossom has suggested, we need to think outside of the box if she is to continue at Emory. Instead of feeling like she doesn’t “fit in” to the pre-professional group, she could chart her own course. She is firm in her desire to minor in Spanish and that is something she can do at Emory.</p>
<p>Many of your posts have me concerned about BU, and we will need to look into that. I have been cruising the CC Board looking at schools and I am reminded that each school has positives and negatives. Perhaps it would be a good idea for her to look at the Emory liberal arts curriculum with new eyes and to seek out advisors and professors that can guide her. She did register for all classes that have less than 40 students (some only 15) and that are more analytically/paper assessed.</p>
<p>We will need to revisit some of the things that attracted her to Emory in the first place. She likes the diversity, the internationals, the four years of housing, her sorority and the facilities. Perhaps she can get internships/work experience on the campus to better round out her education. Also, perhaps accepting that she is not “the norm” for the Emory student will be fine and also realizing that one doesn’t have to be pre-med or business to be successful.</p>
<p>She did look at Wesleyan and liked it very much but did not like the location. I think she really is more of a larger environment/ city kid. </p>
<p>I can’t thank you all enough for your input. It is so helpful.</p>
<p>Your daughter could be like me (extremely rare, especially as a double science major non-premed). Also, once professors get to know you as the non-preprof that works hard, they tend to look out for you more. They treat you as a person who takes their discipline seriously, in a context beyond “completing it because it’ll help me with pre-X”. The professoriate here is actually quite anti-“pre”, especially those in the sciences. They may kind of cater their course or curriculum to them in some cases, but that doesn’t mean they want to, and often such professors try to take an approach that actually p**ses the “pres” off because the course gets harder. They expose them to material that they need and should want to know going into their profession, but does it in a rigorous way. Like the case-based learning science courses cover disease and therapeutic solutions, pre-med relevant areas, but many pre-meds view it as too much work, and rather have the traditional lecturing with the multiple choice exams,which many of the professors try and make tough as nails. Bio dept. was so anti-premed at one point that they actively sought to weed-out students and the intro. bio course actually had an abnormal D/F rate for a top private school. Since then, they have softened up a lot (again, no bio prof. had multiple choice exams before 2007), but one can tell that they were moreso pressured to soften. For example, it has been implied by several faculty members that the deans are over-protective of pre-professionals, so such a development is no surprise.</p>
<p>Anyway, your daughter can take advantage of it. She should try to talk to her professors (after class, office ours, workshops, w/e) and express her interest in the material and perhaps her career goals if it ever comes up. You never know what will happen. Many/most professors are actually quite easy to establish a relationship with and have a lot to offer. Dr. Kenneth Stein, for example, who teaches Arab-Israeli Conflict, a huge course, is actually known for his mentoring (he has won awards for it). He singles out those who do well on the first midterm and invites them to his office and discusses possible opportunities in writing. Things such as writing for the press, working at the Carter Center (Stein was one of Carter’s right-hand men during the years of the peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel), etc. Basically, the man is one among many that set people up for success, regardless of the size of his class. I assure you the atmosphere in 40 and under classrooms is even more conducive to this if your daughter seeks it. Her standing out is a plus in this arena, trust me.</p>
<p>peacefulmom, I think you need to think outside the box in another way as well. My instinct is that you/your daughter are trying to decide this with too many constraints in place and that you are too locked into them at this point in the problem-solving exercise. </p>
<p>The constraints include big city, no gap year, Boston, … . The constraints rule out Tufts, which might otherwise be a great place for an inquiring mind, because if no gap year, she would have to do sophomore year at Emory, which implies no social life at Tufts. But, here’s the hypothetical: If there were a school at which she would be a perfect fit but required a year off, would she take the year off and do something interesting and start as a sophomore at the perfect school or would she prefer another year at Emory and/or a lesser transfer choice? These constraints are going to leave her at Emory with a rethink about who she is and that she can have a successful life without being pre-med or business (not necessarily a bad thing) or at BU. Neither of these choices strikes me as likely to be optimal although I suspect that she can make either work.</p>
<p>My advice would be to tentatively release the constraints as a thought experiment and then see if you can jointly find a significantly better choice. You may not, but you may. At that point, you and your daughter can then decide whether you want to leave the constraints in place. Is it better to be in a city with a mediocre fit or a less desirable location (semi-urban like Wesleyan) with a much better fit. Wesleyan is in a city (a smallish city), just not an interesting one (although I personally would put Atlanta in that same category, except for the music). I’d entertain a variety of choices. If the constraints still seem that important, live with them, but she’ll really know why she is there.</p>
<p>For whatever it’s worth at this point, I second blossom and shawbridge. My S1, who will be a freshman at Brown in the fall and was looking for a school that was not pre-professional heavy, loved Tufts, Brandeis and Wesleyan. He felt that the ethos at these schools was very similar to brown’s (he also applied to Emory and Penn but in the end felt that they weren’t a good social fit for him; academically, they were very strong in his intended major).</p>
<p>As far as a communications/PR/advertising major goes, if your daughter is truly an intellectual, learning-for-the-sake-of-learning kid, I’d recommend she major in English and learn to write well. She can go on to grad school for communications or do a training program at a PR firm when she graduates from college. I was an art history major at a Massachusetts woman’s college many moons ago, went on to a Ph.D program in art history, and then to a first job in the training program at Ruder Finn, the largest independently held PR firm in the country. After the program, I was hired by Ruder Finn in its Arts & Communications Counselors division, where I worked for the Vatican, among other leading museums. I feel the same way IRT business school; I’d advise that kids major in math, econ, poli sci, comp sci, soc, etc and then go to business school after they work for a few years. A lot of what you learn in business school or in a program for Communications, you learn on the job. Frankly, I think it’s a waste of an undergrad education, which IMHO should be all about the liberal arts whether the student is at a LAC or UNI.</p>
<p>I’m following this thread as D2 is just starting the college search process and our first visit was Emory. She walked out a little puzzled by the emphasis on pre professional programs and the lack of info about arts & sciences (but as I pointed out, she didn’t ask any questions and the kids who did asked about pre med, pre law & the B school.) She didn’t take it off the list & it’s surfaced again recently since it was listed on 2 “Top 10” lists for best creative writing programs. Could that be a possibility for your D? The program sounds wonderful. </p>
<p>Would she be able to “transfer” to Oxford for next year? Sounds like smaller classes, more LAC feel, but still within Emory. I’m sure it’s late for deadlines but it might be do-able and I think Oxford sounds fantastic.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Emory in 2010 with a joint major in psychology and another area. Although she was accepted into Emory as a freshman, she elected to go to another top 50-ish school for the big scholarship. She transferred into Emory in the spring of her sophomore year. </p>
<p>We are from Georgia and know about 10 kids that went to, and graduated from, Emory. All of them enjoyed their time and got into good programs after Emory. I didn’t think about it until this thread, but they all entered Emory knowing what they wanted and didn’t deviate during their time there. Four were pre-med (all at med schools now), a BBA, several science non-premed types and a few psych students.</p>
<p>I was always impressed with the professors reaching out to the students in their classes and I do think they do try to reach out to the students that do well in their classes and are interested (I am talking about psych and the social sciences here). My daughter did not take intro psych at Emory, but at the other school, but the experience sounds similar. At Emory taking the upper level psych there was interaction with both professors and TAs. She worked in a lab for credit one semester and after that she was offered a paying position for future semesters. She had no problem getting internships while she was in school and was accepted into the #1 program for her interests for grad school and felt fully prepared for the rigorous program. My daughter does not have an outgoing give me attention personality and I was quite pleased that there were four or five professors and TAs that I felt reached out and offered her opportunites. She did participate in the Honors program and I’m sure that helped. </p>
<p>I have read Bernie’s posts on many Emory threads and I generally agree with him from a parent’s perspective. </p>
<p>My husband and I were bpth pleased with our daughter’s time and education at Emory.</p>
<p>Emory also has a program where they will provide the funds for students to take their professors out to lunch to get the students to reach and make contact with their professors.</p>
<p>I never heard of that. Many of my professors just took us out to dinner or lunch on their own accord. For example, Dr. Dianne Diakite in my African Religion class decided that she wanted to take us to Maggianos (I don’t know how to spell it, sorry), and so it was. Professor Soria at random takes students in his organic chemistry class to a lunch. Normally, in Soria’s class, it is done after winning some competition (like here is a difficult problem set, get in groups, whoever comes up with the most reasonable answers wins). He also does things like pits himself and a group of upperclassmen from previous years in his class against his freshmen in basketball, Frisbee, and volleyball games. Perhaps this stuff is funded, but I don’t know.<br>
Folks like Dr. Stokes, who like to cook, will invite students over to their house to eat (his house is really, really, really, nice cottage/cabin style, completely pimped out, pond out back, amazing). Also been to Dean Rams house as a freshman. That was really cool too.<br>
Emory also has faculty-in-residence programs at Clairmont campus. I know Dr. Escobar and Morkin live there (one could always see the events at Morkin’s place as she is located on the ground level below the hill with the tinman and giant tree in the middle).</p>
<p>Oh, also, as for arts and sciences. This portion of the Emory Youtube actually highlights many students who pursue such a route. I don’t think it’s really intentionally slanted either, but it could be. Their are some pre-profs. interviewed, but many are the artsy and intellectual types. There are actually a solid amount here, but they get overshadowed by the pre-prof. fervor and become hard to notice at times. I’ve met many of these students by the way.</p>
<p>Note that the cite is calibrated so that it has this X-men video showing when you initially get there. The videos of concern have to be clicked on (you know, to the right).</p>
<p>I just looked, it appears it was funded through Campus Life and I didn’t find any current links. My D didn’t do it, but I know someone who did. I thought it was a nice idea.</p>
<p>I can not think of the dorm my daughter lived in when she started at Emory, but it is the big sophomore dorm (Woodruff?). They had an advisor on site during the day. I don’t think he lived there, but he was available by appt or walk-in. My D used an advisor provided at transfer orientation and the advisor at Woodruff during her first semester to make sure she was on track. She also used a psych advisor at the beginning of junior year. Once she knew she would be in the Honors program, she found a professor to work with and he was her advisor for the end of junior year until graduation.</p>
<p>Would be really nice if we could expand the faculty-in residence program at Clairmont. Also, doing something at the freshman level wouldn’t be bad either. The Vandy Commons comes to mind (as we are essentially in the middle of building a freshmen village). I just wonder if Emory students would like such a thing. They are already considering (it’ll probably go through) a “freshmen dining commons” to be added to the DUC with incoming phases of the new freshmen construction. I don’t know if the Commons model would work as well at Emory though given that residence halls definitely tend to take on their own personalities. Given this, unifying the freshmen halls (which have different themes at that) is difficult and then Vandy has the fact that it decided to, I think, just open the Commons when the whole thing was done, thus separate dorms didn’t have time to go completely separate ways. Here, new dorms come like a year at a time.
Also, I lived in Woodruff. I will admit that the advising was actually quite good there. They had a much larger professional staff I guess. However, I think the Complex (just became sophomore last year. I lived there as a freshmen and loved it. The community feel is still as strong as it was when it was for freshmen. Woodruff folks were more insular and cliquey) approach is effective too. Less professional, more get to know and interact with your hallway type interactions from the RA to even the Hall Director level in some cases (like Hopkins 2nd).</p>